Manufacturing

Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. David Mindell spotlights how “a new wave of industrial companies, many in New England, are leveraging new technologies to create jobs, empower workers, and address climate change.” Mindell notes that “young Americans — new industrialists — are devoting themselves to making things for the common good.” He adds: "The country needs this generation of builders who are excited about working with their hands, about the satisfactions of building the world, and who see that work as building our communities.”

Forbes reporter Michael Nietzel spotlights MIT’s Initiative for New Manufacturing (INM), “an institution-wide effort intended to promote and advance the future of U.S. manufacturing.” Nietzel notes that the INM is part of an effort to “rethink how MIT could help shape the future of manufacturing through workforce training, advanced technologies, and industry collaborations. It will focus on enhancing the future manufacturing capacity and sophistication of several major industries.”

Prof. David Autor speaks with Rogé Karma from The Atlantic about the role of tariffs in the American manufacturing industry. “Letting free trade rip is an easy policy,” says Autor. “Putting up giant tariffs is an easy policy. Figuring out some middle path is hard. Deciding what sectors to invest in and protect is hard. Doing the work to build new industries is hard. But this is how great nations lead.” 

A study by MIT researchers finds “using scrubbers to treat exhaust from heavy fuel oil may offer environmental performance on par with, and in some areas superior to, burning low-sulfur fuels in maritime shipping,” reports Hassan Ahmed for Engineeringness. “The research provides data that could help policymakers and industry leaders better assess the comparative costs and benefits of available fuel options,” explains Ahmed. 

Ben Armstrong, executive director of the MIT Industrial Performance Center, speaks with Marketplace reporter Samantha Fields about the impact of tariffs on manufacturing in the U.S. “Things like magnets, which are really critical for batteries and other core electronic technologies, we’ve really lost the capacity to build in the U.S.” Armstrong adds that it’s possible to build that capacity here, but “it takes a long time, and it takes really significant investment,” likely from the government and from companies.

MIT engineers have developed a new system that helps pesticides adhere more effectively to plant leaves, allowing farmers to use fewer chemicals without sacrificing crop protection, reports Michigan Farm News. The new technology “adds a thin coating around droplets as they are being sprayed onto a field, increasing the stickiness of pesticides by as much as a hundredfold.”

“A breakthrough from MIT researchers and AgZen, a spinoff company, is making agricultural spraying more efficient—cutting pesticide waste, lowering costs, and reducing environmental impact,” reports Rural Radio Network. “The technology works with existing sprayers, eliminating the need for costly equipment changes. In field tests, it doubled product retention on crops like soybeans and kale. AgZen’s spray-monitoring system, RealCoverage, has already helped farmers reduce pesticide use by 30 to 50 percent, and the new coating could improve efficiency even further.” 

Materials World Magazine reporter Sarah Morgan spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a new material that can reduce the hazardous materials produced during aluminum manufacturing. “Our membrane, which has a positively charged coating, repels aluminum while letting the less positively-charged sodium ions pass through,” explains undergraduate student Trent Lee. “This process allows us to concentrate and recover aluminum, so it can be put back into the production process instead of being wasted.”

Prof. Christopher Knittel speaks with GBH reporter Robert Goulston about the potential impact of tariffs on imported metals and lumber. “When you place a tariff on an imported good, it’s not just the price of the imports that increase, but it’s also the price of the domestically manufactured products that increase,” explains Knittel. “Obviously the cost of importing steel and aluminum will increase, but domestic manufacturers will also raise their price because they can.”

Prof. David Autor speaks with NPR Planet Money host Greg Rosalsky about his working paper exploring “what happened to American communities after China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001,” also known as the “China Shock." Autor and his colleagues found that while regions impacted by the China Shock did eventually recover, the people hurt by the China Shock did not. “The China Shock research suggests that classic, free market economic theory blinded many to the reality that free trade can destroy the livelihoods of many people and that they have a hard time adjusting," says Rosalsky.

Prof. Yossi Sheffi speaks with Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray about the challenges and risks posed by implementing automation, amid the dockworkers strike. Sheffi emphasized the importance of gradually introducing new technologies and offering workers training to work with AI. “There will be new jobs,” says Sheffi. “And we want the current workers to be able to get these new jobs.” 

Prof. Yossi Sheffi speaks with Associated Press reporter Cathy Bussewitz about how automation could impact the workforce, specifically dockworkers. “You cannot bet against the march of technology,” says Sheffi. “You cannot ban automation, because it will creep up in other places... The trick is to make it over time, not do it haphazardly.” 

Prof. Kripa Varanasi and Vishnu Jayaprakash SM '19, PhD '22  founded AgZen, a company aimed at reducing pesticide use by employing a feedback-optimized spraying system, reports Steven Savage for Forbes. Savage notes that for the researchers behind AgZen, “MIT turned out to be a good place to work on the specific imaging technology and on the AI needed to translate that into a practical solution for farmers.”

Wall Street Journal reporter Justin Lahart spotlights the work of Prof. David Autor, an economist whose “thinking helped change our understanding of the American labor market.” Harvard Prof. Lawrence Katz says Autor has “probably been the most insightful and influential scholar of the labor market” in decades.  “To me, the labor market is the central institution of any society,” says Autor. “The fastest way to improve people’s welfare is to improve the labor market.” 

Katie Rae, CEO and managing partner of the Engine Ventures, speaks with Boston Globe reporter Aaron Pressman about The Engine Ventures’ third investment fund, which remains focused on “helping early-stage startups develop and commercialize ‘tough tech,’ which can include anything from fusion power generators to cement made without fossil fuels.” Rae notes: “You see this dynamism not just for climate, but for all things manufacturing, whether it’s biotech, whether it’s AI chips, it is about as an exciting moment as you could get for what we do.”